Piccadilly to Kings Cross

[drossall]

Any recommendations, especially at the Piccadilly/Park Lane end? I'm starting at a new place after Christmas. I did a first run there this week. I've got to know the routes around the University of London area and north of Hyde Park in recent years, but I found the roads pretty crowded with no good options at the western end of this new route. I've used CycleStreets, of course. Doesn't look as though I've missed anything obvious, but you never know.

[Ham]

I'd do that straight-ish down to Theobalds Road (quite OK that bit), West along Theobald's bus lane, and straight down Shaftsbury Ave

[drossall]

Thanks. I agree about Theobalds Road. On a quick look, Shaftesbury Avenue has some bus/cycle lanes (not an absolute requirement, but the problem I had was with roads blocked by stationary motor traffic). But that would put me at the east end of Piccadilly and I'm going to the west. Straight down Piccadilly? What's that like?

I can soon enough find out for myself of course, but the wisdom of others always helps.

[toontra]

Piccadilly itself is fine.  The bottom end of Shaftesbury between Charing Cross and Piccadilly is bad for congestion and pedestrians but I can't think of any timely alternatives.

[grams]

Park Lane cycle lane, across the island to Great Cumberland Place, your choice of back streets to Torrington Place.

I think there’s still a cycle lane on Euston Road.

Theobalds Road is awful. My normal route that way is up Museum Street, right at the British Museum, left pass Russell Square, cut through SOAS to the Torrington Place cycle track.

[drossall]

That sounds worth looking at, thanks. For comparison, here's what CycleStreets suggested. As I said, I was happier with the eastern end of that (which I pretty-much know) than the west, when I tried it.

I think I already know the route from Great Cumberland Place. I hadn't spotted cycle lanes on Park Lane.

[Jurek]

Personally, I'd go with the Grams variant.

[drossall]

I did wonder about Park Street to Portman Square, chiefly because of the lack of crossings of Park Lane to reach the northbound cycle lane. I'll have chance to experiment of course. But I gather Park Lane gets jammed, so maybe Park Street gets some of the excess motor traffic?

[drossall]

Now I've done it a couple more times, I thought I'd post back, just in case anyone ever asks a similar question. I'm only going occasionally, as we're still mostly working from home even now, so it's only three trips in total.

As I mentioned, the CycleStreets route was a bit congested, especially around the crossing of Regent Street. I've actually found it a lot better to keep a bit north of that, more in line with the suggestion from grams. So I've used the Tavistock Place - Howland Street cycle route, in both directions. Westbound, Great Portland Street and Margaret Street take me onto New Bond Street, which is a good run south to Bruton Street, Berkeley Square and Curzon Street, then some small back roads. Only seems to add a couple of hundred yards over the CycleStreets route, and quite a decent route overall. The first half I knew already from trips to other places.

Coming back, I tried South Audley Street and Adams Row to get onto Davies Street and Marylebone Lane, but found it a bit plagued with lights every hundred yards, some of which apparently failed to respond to bikes. I think I'm going to see whether it's better just to use Hay's Mews to avoid some of the congestion in Berkeley Square getting onto Davies Street, and I've an idea that Wimpole Street might avoid a recalcitrant set of lights at the top of Marylebone Street that don't even seem to respond to cars at the moment. The A5204 is then a good run to Chenies Street and Torrington Place again.

I can do the westbound route in about 20 minutes, but the wind-assisted return is taking five minutes longer, which gives you an idea how much stop-start you get from too many sets of lights! Anyway, that's my answer for now. Thanks for all the suggestions.